Attention Campus Organizers: Know Your IX

The Know Your IX[1] website exploded on social media earlier this week and I couldn’t be happier about it. The website provides information, planning tools, and strategies for campus-based organizers to promote equitable education for all. Traditionally, Title IX was understood as an act to promote equal treatment for all genders in things like sports programs. In reality, it is so much bigger than that! In April 2011, the White House released a “Dear Colleague” letter addressing the connection between Title IX and sexual violence[2]. This cemented the idea that students should have access to institutional support, options for reporting, and clear and decisive action after someone makes a report of sexual assault or harassment.

What I love about Know Your IX is that it takes the voices of student activists and survivors, wraps it up with basic facts about the legal obligation schools have to respond to sexual violence, and offers ideas for how to mobilize into action. Right from the homepage, it directs you to the information you need based on what you want to do. This includes reporting violence[3], changing[4] your school, spreading the word[5], and supporting a survivor[6].

Campus organizing and activism sparked my interest in the anti-sexual violence movement. I wouldn’t be doing this work if I hadn’t gotten started with a peer education group back in college. The way I see it, the broader movement needs to do everything that it can to cultivate and support campus organizing. This is the training ground for a dynamic and sustainable movement to end sexual violence. Rock on . In me, you have a loyal fan.